YABeeP aims to provide peer support to individuals and families who want to encourage both wild and honey bees and maybe keep bees themselves. We advocate using bee-friendly natural bee-keeping methods. Where our members keep honeybees they do so primarily for the benefit of the bees themselves, not in order to exploit them for forced honey production or personal profit1.
For 2012 we will continue to hold our informal meetings at 10:30am on the second Saturday of each month during the bee season - March to October. Meetings last about 2 hours and, weather permitting, usually include a chance to see bees in action:-
2012 Dates:
- March 10th - Meeting 10:30 Wake Worlock Room, Yatton Library - map
- April 14th - Meeting 10:30 First hour for those starting natural beekeeping
- April 28th - Warré hive building workshop (all day). NB date to be confirmed
- May 12th - Meeting - followed by solitary bee box workshop
- June 9th - Meeting followed by Barbecue picnic lunch.
- July 14th - Meeting
- August 11th - Meeting
- September 8th - Meeting
- October 13th - Meeting
If you wish to join one of these meetings we'd love to see you - please email YABeeP@googlemail.com or tel: 01934 876275 to let us know who you are, how many will attend and to get directions to the meeting. We hope to hear from you.
Why do we meet?
Meetings allow us to:
- welcome new members to learn about our aims and principles and decide whether they wish join us;
- provide an environment to network with each other to expand our knowledge, ask questions and share new ideas and thoughts on helping bees;
- provide an opportunity to get hands on with bees (dependant on weather of course) and see into a working hive/bee box;
- meet socially and enjoy the occasional BBQ, picnic, etc., after all life’s not all about bees.
Where do we meet?
Meetings take place in the Yatton area as this is central to our North Somerset patch, either in a local home or the Yatton Library. The venue details and a map are emailed to members the week before each meeting.
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| ... or in the Library |
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| We meet outside...... |
YABeeP believes in holding informal meetings; we don't instruct our members or provide formal training courses but use a 'learning through doing with support' philosophy. Meetings are used to provide peer support and help for those new to bees as well as share experiences and learning amongst those who already keep them. We also often have short themed talks at our meetings, mostly given by our own members (volunteers always needed!) but occasionally bringing in a local(ish) expert. Weather permitting, we also use meetings to let members get up close and personal with bees and experience the workings of the various bee homes we use.
Workshops
In addition to our monthly meetings we also arrange practical workshops as demand dictates. These tend to be half or all day affairs which allow members to build their own hives for honey bees or homes for bumbles and solitary bees. As well as being highly productive – you should expect to complete your project within the day - the workshops held to date have all been great social events! These workshops will be listed in the Dates section above in green when arranged.
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| A full day's Hive Building Workshop....... (click to enlarge) |
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| ......or a 2 hour Solitary Bee home gathering. |
Where demand dictates we also arrange small group training days using guest trainers with expertise in their field, a small charge is made for these to pay for the speakers. For 2012 our good friend Gareth John has again agreed to provide workshops on Kenyan hive manipulations. These will be published to members as and when arranged.
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| Gareth John's 'How to Split a Horizontal Hive' training day 2010 |
Robin Morris
1For a fuller explanation of what we mean by bee-freindly 'natural beekeeping' see this page.
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